Here are 6 ways to improve your medical practice for patient care in 2023
Healthcare practitioners can always find ways to readily improve their healthcare practice and by association the long-term health outcome of their patients. However, it is not always clear what results should be focused on, even with the best intentions. To aid you, we’ve assembled another short list of six different improvements empowering the performance of your healthcare practice.
1 – Introduce and Utilize Digital Tools
Technology is rapidly expanding in the healthcare space. Therefore, taking advantage of every inexpensive and powerful utility to provide better care will benefit practitioners greatly. In a healthcare structure with increasingly burdened staff, finding the means to save time while delivering quality care is invaluable.
We’ve discussed examples of evolving tech before, such as telemedicine and virtual health. Wearables and data management will also play a larger role in healthcare. Moving beyond legacy infrastructure into the versatile new age ensures the survival of a medical practice and better outcomes for patient health. Taking advantage of time-saving tools like Dragon Medical One dictation software is an example of robust, reactive software fitting into the picture of modern healthcare.
2 – Education and Knowledge Expansion
Staying updated on medical advancements is critical for doctors, physicians, and nurses. Not only to expand your career path but to have the best and latest knowledge on condition treatment. How you decide to accomplish this is up to you. However, attending conferences, receiving new training, or establishing new training requirements/plans for staff are several ways to expand the knowledge base of your practice.
3 – Focus on Patient-Centered Care
Even with the expansion of technology and resources, it’s easier for patients to feel isolated with their health problems. Powerlessness is a characteristic of long-term treatment and a feeling related to hospital visits, as a patient feels less in control of their life and situation.
A way to further improve your practice is to treat a patient as a partner in their healthcare. Take their feedback into consideration and help them feel stronger in the decisions made about their health. While patients still trust their healthcare professionals, their input is still important. By giving patients more control over their healthcare choices, they will trust both you and your practice, forming a healthy bond between doctor and patient.
4 – Address Healthcare Inequities
Not everyone receives the same level of healthcare for a variety of factors. Economic reasons often mean patients have limited options with a PCP. Other barriers like geography and distance are additional inequity issues (thus the rise of telecare). In rarer instances, medical racism can play a role in the treatment of patients.
If you feel healthcare inequities are present in your practice or you identify past examples with your patient, addressing it ASAP will improve their outlook. All patients want to feel they’re receiving the best possible treatment and will stick with a PCP that provides it.
5 – Emphasize Teamwork and Collaboration
Healthcare isn’t a one-person show, and you should never feel like you’re handling every aspect of the medical process. A practice is only as strong as its “weakest” member, so emphasis on collaboration is another key aspect of empowering your medical practice. Staff should feel like they make a meaningful impact regardless of their responsibilities. If someone is struggling, they should be helped.
Given the turnover rate for medical professionals and nurses is also higher than usual, this can help encourage long-term staff who are committed to their roles and the medical practice. Given how invaluable expertise is when treating patients, encouraging team building is another serious consideration to have for your practice.
6 – Encourage and Promote Preventative Care
One of the biggest challenges low-income patients face is emergency care costs, primarily driven by a lack of preventative care. Preventative care catches health complications before they develop into an emergency scenario, saving everyone involved a great deal of time and money.
While you can’t resolve a patient’s economic situation, it’s important to help them find avenues for inexpensive treatment. Whether that’s reduced price programs for prescriptions, encouraging virtual care to save money, or otherwise offering education on their condition(s) to promote good health, this is a recommended step to further involve yourself in a patient’s outcome. Visitors will appreciate this layer of care and continue to trust your practice as a valued practitioner.
Conclusion
Improving your medical organization is a constant battle to strive for the best techniques to treat patients. Combined with discoveries, technology, and team efforts, however, any practice can be greatly improved. Using powerful platforms like Dragon Medical One helps you further achieve these goals by reducing time spent on documentation.
To learn more about Dragon Medical One, contact us, or start your risk-free trial today!
